Despite the significant changes in the economy and society that have taken place over the past two decades, the Japanese labor market continues to retain such distinctive features as sharp differences in the status of permanent and non-permanent employees, insufficient and peculiar forms of women's participation in economic activities, the practice of forced dismissal of older workers, etc. To a large extent, this is due to the deep roots in the business environment and society as a whole of the ideology of the lifetime hiring system-a specifically Japanese recruitment and personnel management system. The preservation of traditional features of the Japanese labor market resulted in the emergence of a number of painful social phenomena affecting primarily Japanese youth. In addition, the current situation is one of the factors that make it difficult to restore sustainable economic dynamics.

Keywords: labor market, lifetime employment, permanent and temporary workers, freeters, age-specific wages, retraining and career, women's employment, forced dismissals.

Being one of the most developed countries in the world and having all the formal institutions of a market economy, Japan has until recently retained a number of features in the organization of the economic life of society that significantly distinguished it from other highly developed countries. These include the close relationship between business and the bureaucracy, the widespread use by the state of informal methods of regulation (so-called administrative management), a high degree of regulation of economic life, the practice of grouping-the formation of stable informal closed-type associations by independent companies, the "socialization" of costs and results of economic growth using various tools, the existence of a "closed"market. the labor market associated with the peculiarities of the recruitment and labor management system of Japanese companies, the presence of "non-market" features in the business practices of companies and banks, etc.

These traits were formed due to the peculiarities of the historical development of the country and under the strong influence of national culture, which predetermined the tendency to collectivism, egalitarian consciousness, the desire for consensus and harmony (harmony), the preference for long-term relationships, adherence to the principle of seniority, paternalism.

In the 1990s and 2000s, under the influence of internal and external factors, reforms were carried out in Japan, which significantly transformed the country's economic system, making it more competitive and open. Nevertheless, in a number of areas and now you can find "Japanese specifics". One of the most striking examples of this kind is the labor market.

page 97
The processes taking place in the Japanese labor market are largely the result of the commitment of national companies to the principles of a specific recruitment and personnel management system, called lifetime hiring. This system began to take shape during the period of high growth rates (the second half of the 1950s-1960s), when Japanese companies experienced a severe shortage of qualified labor and, in order to retain the necessary employees, began to provide them with guarantees of long-term employment along with a whole package of material and moral incentives [Matrusova, 1996, p. 128 - 139; Matrusova, 2008, pp. 222-251]. In the following years, this system spread rapidly, and by the end of the 1980s, it became a kind of labor management model, not only for large companies, but also for a significant part of small and medium-sized firms.

It should immediately be noted that the system of lifelong employment has never covered all workers. In the most complete form (i.e. with the provision of guarantees of long-term employment, provision of conditions for professional development and promotion based on in-house training, with guarantees of salary increases as the length of service increases, and other measures of material and moral incentives) it was used in large private companies, as well as in public institutions. Here, both blue and white collars fell under it. However, medium-sized and even small firms, in order to increase their attractiveness in the eyes of employees and stimulate their labor motivation, also sought to apply the system of lifelong employment to varying degrees, extending its principles to a certain category of employees (for example, only white-collar workers) or using only certain elements of it. At the same time, it should be emphasized that during the 1950s and 1980s, the privileges of the lifetime employment system were extended almost exclusively to male employees.

It is obvious that the rapid spread of the system of lifelong employment, the perception of its ideas and principles by both entrepreneurs and ordinary employees was facilitated not only by the fact that these ideas and principles were close to the socio-psychological guidelines of the Japanese nation (mentioned above), but also by the fact that it was very effective from an economic point of view. Briefly, the basics of this efficiency can be described as follows.

Every year, on April 1 (which is the beginning of the fiscal year in Japan), graduates of higher and secondary educational institutions are admitted to the company (the first-for white-collar positions, the second-for blue-collar positions) and at the same time employees who have reached the so-called maximum age of stay in the company (now it is 60 years) are dismissed. This mechanism is of fundamental importance for maintaining the effectiveness of lifelong hiring, since it allows the company not only to plan and regulate, but also to restrain the growth of labor costs in the context of an age-based salary system, which provides for its increase as the employee's length of service increases. No less important is the organization of the age-based wage system itself, namely, that it is lower for young workers than their real productivity, while for older workers, on the contrary, it is higher than their real productivity. This allows the company to retain the employee until they reach the age limit (since only in this case can they receive compensation for underpaying their work in the first years of work) and, consequently, recoup their costs for training employees with the necessary qualifications.

In combination with guarantees of long-term employment, advanced training, promotion and other elements of the system of lifelong employment, age-specific wages served as a powerful incentive to increase the labor motivation of employees, helped to instill in them a sense of loyalty to the company, interest in the company's employees.-

page 98
confidence in its success. This, in turn, led to an increase in labor productivity, improved labor discipline, and improved production culture in general.

In the conditions of high growth rates in the second half of the 1950s-early 1970s and a rather favorable market situation in the second half of the 1970s - 1980s, the lifetime employment system functioned very effectively, since two main conditions for its effectiveness were provided. Firstly, there was a constant renewal of the labor force due to the influx of young people, and secondly, the growth of production created opportunities for annual wage increases.

However, since the early 1990s, the economy and society have been undergoing changes that undermine the effectiveness of the lifetime hiring system. First, the Japanese economy entered a period of prolonged depression that lasted for more than two decades and significantly complicated the financial situation of Japanese companies. Second, by this time, Japan had ended the period of the so-called demographic bonus and the process of rapid aging of the population, and therefore the labor force, had begun.

Nevertheless, despite these changes, the system of lifelong employment has managed to survive and until recently continued to have a decisive impact on the situation in the Japanese labor market.

The following data show how deeply ingrained the ideas of lifelong employment are in Japan and how widespread the practice of long-term relationships between the company and employees is here (Table 1).

Table 1

Percentage of employees aged 50-59 with more than 20 years of work experience in the same company, 2009 (%)

Company size

(number of employees)

Duration of work

20-24 years old

25-29 years old

more than 30 years

Total

1000 people or more

4.0

5.1

66.3

75.4

100-999 people

6.0

6.9

40.0

52.9

10-99 people

8.9

7.9

21.0

37.8

5-9 people

10.3

9.8

22.9

43.0

Source: Naohiro Yashiro. Myths about Japanese Employment Practices// Contemporary Japan Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies. 2011. Vol. 23. N 2, p. 136.

Not only the above data, but also the results of surveys conducted in different years of top managers of Japanese firms, as well as ordinary employees, indicate that Japanese companies remain committed to the principles of lifelong hiring [Corporate Governance..., 2009, p. 249].

Of course, this does not mean that there are no changes in the lifetime hiring system. Moreover, in order to preserve its main principle - the guarantee of long-term employment, Japanese companies had to make quite significant changes to some of its elements [Lebedeva, 2014]. In particular, the situation on the labor market was directly affected by changes in the approaches of companies to hiring labor, namely, the restriction of admission to permanent work of graduates of schools and higher educational institutions and a sharp increase in the use of various forms of non-permanent employment.

These measures were aimed at curbing the growth of labor costs, which is inevitable in the context of a deteriorating economic environment and an aging labor force (while maintaining guarantees of long-term employment and an age-based wage system

page 99
fees). Only in recent years have these efforts begun to produce results, which at the macro level has been reflected in the dynamics of such an indicator as the share of labor in national income: having increased from 64-68% in the mid-1980s to 72-74% in the late 1990s and early 2000s, in 2009-2012 it fell to about 70%. [Labor Economic...].

The practice of restricting the recruitment of school and university graduates for permanent work, previously used by Japanese companies only during periods of economic deterioration, has become stable and purposeful since the early 1990s. If in 1990 the number of employed graduates of secondary and higher-level schools (age cohort-15-19 years) the number of graduates of colleges and universities (age cohort - 20-24 years) - about 530 thousand people, then by 2012 these figures decreased to 182 thousand and 476 thousand people, respectively. In other words, 550,000 fewer young people were able to find permanent employment in 2012 than in 1990 [Labor Economic...]. At the same time, the use of various forms of non-permanent employment by Japanese companies of part-time, contract and temporary workers was rapidly increasing. The share of this group in the total number of employees increased from 20.2% in 1990 to 38.2% in 2012, i.e. almost doubled, and one of the main sources of its replenishment was young people who did not find permanent work [Toukei de ..., 2008, p. 179; Employment Structure..., 2012, table 1-10]. In recent years, the share of non-permanent employment among young people aged 15-24 who completed their education was about 1/3 [White Paper..., 2012, Chapter 2].

Of course, the dramatic increase in non-permanent employment over the past two decades was not only due to restrictions on the recruitment of young people for permanent work. At least two other factors contributed to this. First, the servicification of the Japanese economy, including the rapid development of the individual services market, creates objective prerequisites for expanding the use of various flexible forms of hiring. Secondly, the change in the very nature of labor due to the transition of the Japanese economy to the stage of post-industrial development. According to Professor Yamada Masahiro, on the one hand, there are still types of work that require special professional knowledge and continuous professional development, and on the other hand, there are types of work that simply follow instructions and do not require advanced training. It is obvious that companies need permanent employees to perform the first type of work, and in the second case, employees who are hired on a non-permanent basis in various forms are quite suitable [Yamada, 2004, p. 60-61].

It is well known that all developed countries have permanent and non-permanent forms of employment, but nowhere are there such significant differences in the situation of permanent and non-permanent workers as in Japan. This is a direct result of the long-term dominance and deep-rooted ideology of lifelong hiring, not only in the business environment, but also in society as a whole.

There are three types of differences in the status of permanent employees of Japanese firms and those working in non-permanent employment: differences in wages, in opportunities for advanced training, and in social status.

According to Japanese statistics, the average salary of non-permanent employees is about 60% of the salary of permanent employees, and in large enterprises-a little more than half [Summary Report..., 2012, p. 12]. This situation persists, despite the fact that the Part-Time Employment Act was revised back in 2007 and the protection of this category of employees was significantly strengthened. In particular, discrimination against non-permanent employees who perform the same job as permanent employees in terms of remuneration (as well as working hours, opportunities for transfer to another position, etc.) was prohibited.

page 100
However, as practice shows, Japanese companies quite easily circumvent these restrictions. The fact is that when determining an employee's salary, Japanese firms take into account not only and not so much the results of his work, but the work process itself, the quality of which depends on the overall potential of the employee (his experience, technical skills, professional knowledge, creative abilities, leadership qualities, discipline, degree of responsibility for the company's affairs, etc.It is clear that with this approach, companies always have the opportunity to explain the difference in pay between permanent and non-permanent employees who perform the same job, by differences in their potential.

There is also a deep divide between these two categories of employees in terms of professional development opportunities. As noted above, professional development of employees based on a system of continuous in-house training is one of the cornerstones of the lifelong hiring system. The success and diligence of the employee in mastering new knowledge and skills determines both the speed of his / her career advancement and the steepness of the salary increase scale. But in Japanese companies, professional development based on in-house training is available only to permanent employees, and these privileges do not apply to non-permanent employees. There is a perfectly rational explanation for this. As noted, in-house training, which requires huge financial costs, justifies itself only if the employee stays in the company for a long time, i.e. is a permanent employee. As for non-permanent employees, their position in Japanese firms is extremely precarious. Both management and trade unions view them as "shock absorbers" who should be dismissed first if the market situation worsens. Unlike in other countries, the Last in - First out principle does not apply in Japan, and companies often dismiss temporary workers, even if they have worked for several years, while retaining young people who have recently been hired for permanent work.

The situation is aggravated by two specific Japanese circumstances. First, due to the special approach of Japanese companies to hiring employees on a life-long basis (namely, their preference for "fresh" graduates who do not have work experience in other firms), the chances of getting a permanent job (and therefore access to the advanced training system) for those who could not do it right away at the end of the year are very high. at the end of an educational institution, they are extremely low. Secondly, unlike in the United States and European countries, Japan has virtually no professional development system outside of in-house training (moreover, for Japanese companies, a" publicly recognized " qualification is not particularly valuable - unlike a qualification acquired in the company itself).

However, the most sensitive aspect of the differences in the status of permanent and non-permanent employees in Japanese firms is the difference in social status. And this is largely due to the entrenchment in the public consciousness of stereotypes generated by the ideology of the lifetime hiring system.

The fact is that lifelong hiring has become not only the labor management system of Japanese companies, but also the basis on which and around which the values and lifestyle of several post-war generations of Japanese people were formed [Lebedeva, 2014]. One of these values was the status of a permanent employee, with guarantees of promotion and salary increases for many years to come, which created conditions for a stable, predictable life for both employees and their families. (Recall that in the late 1980s, about 80% of self-employed people were classified as permanent employees.)

The social status of a non-permanent employee, with unstable employment and low wages, was much lower. However, until the early 1990s, these differences did not pose any social problem. On a non-permanent basis

page 101
These jobs were mainly employed by high school students, students, and housewives, and for all these categories, such work was only a supplement to their main activities (study or household management).

The situation began to change as the number of non-permanent employees increased and their composition changed, and now that just under 40% of all employees are employed in non-permanent employment, the sharp differences in the social status and labor market situation of these two categories have become one of the most acute social problems in Japan.

As noted above, in the 1990s and 2000s, due to changes in the hiring policy of Japanese companies, the ranks of non-permanent employees were primarily filled by young people who were unable to find a permanent job immediately after graduation. And there is no doubt that the above-mentioned differences in the position of the two categories of employees are particularly acutely felt by them.

In fact, at the very beginning of life, Japanese youth are divided into two parts: those who were able to get a permanent job immediately after graduation, and those who were left out of this system and are forced to settle for various forms of non-permanent employment. At this point, the differences between these two groups are laid down , which will manifest themselves throughout the rest of their lives-differences in income, social status, lifestyle, life prospects, etc. According to 2012 data, among 15.5 million young people aged 15-34 who are employed, 68% (10.6 million) belonged to the category of permanent employees, and 32% (4.9 million) - to the category of non-permanent employees [White Paper..., 2012, Fig. 5; Basic Survey..., 2012, Fig. 1-8].

In Japan, the second category of young people is called Freeters (a combination of English Free and German Arbeiter) and is defined as follows: freeters are young people of both sexes aged 15 to 34 who are not students or students of educational institutions or housewives (in the case of married women) and work on a non-permanent basis [Cook, 2013, p. 29].

The composition of fritters is extremely diverse, but in general they can be divided into three subgroups::

-so - called parasitic singles (parasite singles-a term coined in the late 1990s by the famous Japanese sociologist Yamada Masahiro), i.e. young people who work only occasionally, live together with their parents and depend on them to meet their daily needs;

- young people (many with higher education) who do not want to entangle their lives with the restrictions and obligations imposed by full-time work, and expect to realize themselves in such areas as art, theater, animation, computer games, etc.;

- "involuntary freeters" - those who tried to find a permanent job immediately after graduation, but failed and are forced to settle for a non-permanent job [Abegglen, 2006, p. 84-85; Cook, 2013, p. 30-31].

Of course, it would be an oversimplification to assume that freeters appeared in Japan only as a result of changes in the hiring policy of Japanese companies. Among the reasons for the rapid increase in their number are the growing well-being of Japanese families, the increasing diversification of life styles and preferences of Japanese people, and the increasing influence of Western culture and Western values on the behavioral attitudes of young people. However, this does not reduce the severity of the problem noted above - a sharp polarization among Japanese youth in terms of income, social status and lifestyle in general. This problem is especially painful for male fritters, which is associated with the following circumstances.

By extending lifetime hiring privileges almost exclusively to male employees, the lifetime hiring system has not only served to consolidate employment opportunities.

page 102
They have a leading position in the family and society, but also gave rise to the idea that the ideal career for a young person is the career of a sarariman (from the English salary man) - a permanent employee of a private company or public institution. The image of sarariman has become a symbol of masculinity and maturity of a young man, and it has become associated with ideas of purposefulness, determination, a developed sense of duty, and awareness of one's responsibility to the family and society. Obviously, freeters don't fit these ideas. Frequent job changes, lack of clear life goals are perceived as an indicator of weak character, immaturity, selfishness and irresponsibility. It is characteristic that not only relatives, friends and girlfriends, but also freeters themselves assess their position in society as a kind of deviation from the norm, and the older they become, the more acutely they feel their non-compliance with the criteria and assessments ingrained in the mass consciousness [Cook, 2013, p.30-32].

Another distinctive feature of the Japanese labor market is the participation of Japanese women in economic activities.

As in other developed countries, an increasing number of women are entering the economic life of society in Japan. According to Japanese statistics, in 2012, the total number of women employed was 27.7 million, or 43% of all employed in the national economy. At the same time, Japan is still behind most developed countries in terms of women's participation in the labor force (63%) (for example, in the USA and Germany, this figure is about 70%, in Canada - 75%, in the Scandinavian countries - about 80%) [Steinberg and Nakane, 2012, p. 16].

Japan differs from other developed countries in the outline of the schedule that reflects the degree of labor activity of women of different age categories. In Japan, its contours resemble the letter "M", with a dip occurring in the age group of 25-39 years (with the share of working women slightly more than half), while in other developed countries they resemble the back of a horse (with the share of working women in the same age group about 75-90%) [Ishii-Kunts, 2013, p. 3]. These differences hide a whole range of problems that Japanese women face in the labor market, and a significant part of these problems is generated by the lifetime employment system.

Since its inception, the lifetime employment system has been very "unfriendly" towards Japanese women. By extending long-term employment guarantees only to male employees, it "pushed" women into non-permanent employment, placing them a priori in an unequal position with men in terms of status, income level, and professional growth opportunities. At the same time, it promoted the formation of a family model with a clear gender division of roles: the husband was supposed to work, and the wife was supposed to raise children and run the household. The increasing income of male employees from year to year fully allowed them to ensure a comfortable existence for their families, and the obligations that they were forced to take on in exchange for the privileges of lifelong employment (long working hours, a large amount of overtime, shortened leave, consent to transfer to another city in the framework of periodic rotations, etc.), assumed that the lion's share of housework and care for raising children is taken on by a non-working spouse.

Of course, under the influence of a number of factors (increasing the level of education of Japanese women, facilitating domestic work due to the rapid spread of various types of household appliances, the desire of women to ensure financial independence from their husband or parents, the desire to improve the financial situation of the family), the situation gradually changed. An increasing number of Japanese women are entering the labor market in search of a full-time job, rather than temporary part-time jobs, as it was before.

page 103
However, even now the position of women in the Japanese labor market is significantly different from that of men.

First of all, this is clearly demonstrated by the data on the prevalence of permanent employment among men and women of different age groups.

Table 2

Share of permanent employees in the total number of employees employed (2012,%)

Age
categories

15-19
years old

20-24
years old

25-29
years old

30-34
years old

35-39
years old

40-44
years old

45-49
years old

50-54
years old

55-59
years old

60-64
years old

Men
34.5

58.5

79.6

85.3

89.1

90.7

90.9

90.4

85.7

42.9

Women

18.8

52.3

60.7

52.4

46.2

41.4

39.6

39.7

37.1

23.5

Source: Basic survey on employment structure. Employment structure of the population of 15 years old and over and households, 2012. Figure 1-8 (www.stat.go.jp/)

Just a quick glance at the table shows how unequal the positions of men and women in the Japanese labor market are in terms of forms of employment. In all age categories, the proportion of men working in permanent employment significantly exceeds the corresponding indicators for women. Characteristically, this situation persists despite the 1985 Law on Equal Rights of Women and Men in Employment, which prohibited any form of discrimination in this area on the basis of gender.

Data from the table. 2 show that while the absolute majority of men (85-90%) continue to enjoy the privileges of permanent employment until the age limit for staying in the company, the situation is completely different for women: in cohorts over 30 years of age, the share of permanently employed people continuously decreases and also falls to below 40%.

At the same time, we should not be deceived by the rather high rates of permanent employment among women in the age groups of 20-24 years, 25-29 years and 30-34 years (52.3%, 60.7%, 52.4%, respectively). The fact is that the situation of women employed on a permanent basis is also markedly different from that of permanent male employees.

Young men who are lucky enough to find a permanent job are usually hired to do what is known as general work (sogoseku), while most girls are hired to do regular work (ippanseku). If the first one involves professional growth, granting all the privileges of a lifetime employment, including permanent professional development, then the second one involves performing simple work (most often office work) with significantly fewer opportunities for professional development and career growth. In 2010, for example, among the newcomers accepted to large companies and selected to perform cutting, the share of women was only 12%. And even in this group, not everyone can expect to have an equal professional career with men: As a rule, men are one or two steps ahead of women in career development [Steinberg and Nakane, 2012, p. 19].

The fact that women who work in permanent employment are forced to settle for a more modest career than men is also shown by the data in Table 3, which reflects differences in the degree of increase in wages of employees with different levels of education. These data are very significant, since, as noted above, the increase in wages in Japanese firms is closely linked to the improvement of employees ' skills based on in-house training, the intensity of which also depends on the trajectory of their career growth.

page 104
Table 3

Difference between the initial and maximum wages of various categories of permanent employees (salary of employees aged 20-24 years = 100)

Categories of employees

With higher education

With secondary special education

With secondary education

Men

(50-54 years)
246

(55-59 years old)
212

(50-59 years old)
180

Women

(50-54 years)
190

(50-59 years old)
145

(45-49 years old)
124

Источник: Summary Report of Basic Survey on Wage Structure (Nationwide) 2012, p. 7 (www.mhlw.go.jp)

It should be noted that the" blame " for the obvious differences in the nature of careers between men and women lies not only with Japanese companies. These differences are laid down even at the stage of choosing an educational institution for girls (and their parents). While the share of girls in the total number of Japanese students is already more than 40%, they are much smaller in prestigious universities where studying offers the greatest chances of getting a job that provides professional growth (for example, at the most prestigious university in the country-Tokyo State University-their share is less than 20%) [Steinberg, Nakane, 2012, p. 20]. As for the companies themselves, by hiring girls to perform ippanseku, which does not require large expenditures on professional development, they thereby seek to minimize the financial losses that are inevitable in the event of their premature dismissal due to marriage and the birth of a child.

As a result of this practice, Japan has lagged significantly behind other countries in terms of the proportion of women in the administrative and administrative staff of private companies and employees of public institutions. In Japan, it is only 11%, while in the USA it is 43%, in France it is 38.7%, in Great Britain it is 35.7%, and in Norway it is 34.4% [Howard Active ..., 2013, p. 1]. The proportion of women among engineering and technical specialists of Japanese firms is even lower, and cases of their appointment to command positions are even lower. posts in this category are exclusive. So, the real sensation was the appointment of Kako Chika to the position of chief engineer of Toyota in 2012, who became the first woman in the history of the Japanese automotive industry to rise to such a high post [Automotive News, August 23, 2014].

However, the inequality of opportunities for professional growth is not the main problem faced by Japanese women working in full-time employment. A much more serious challenge for them is the issue of marriage and having a child, and this problem is especially acute for women seeking to make a career.

At the same time, it is impossible not to notice positive changes in this area: for example, the practice of dismissing women from work immediately after marriage has mostly remained in the past, and an increasing number of them continue to work after marriage. But with regard to the birth of a child, there are no significant changes, as the data presented in Table 2 clearly show: after reaching the peak-60.7% - in the age cohort of 25-29 years, the share of women working in permanent employment almost steadily decreases in subsequent years. This means that many Japanese women not only leave their jobs immediately after the birth of their first child, but also do not return to their previous positions even after the children grow up.

page 105
This situation is related both to the lack of measures taken by the Japanese Government to support working mothers and to the impact of the lifetime employment system.

As for the legislation regulating the state of affairs in this area, tangible progress has been made over the past 20 years. Back in 1991, a law was passed on granting paid leave to care for a child up to the age of 1 (in the amount of 25% of the salary). Then this law was repeatedly revised, and in 2010 the length of leave was increased to 18 months, and the amount of payments - to 50% of the salary level. In addition, the provisions of the law were extended to small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as to certain categories of non-permanent employees. Restrictions were imposed on overtime work for people with children, entrepreneurs were instructed to take into account the marital status of an employee when making a decision to transfer him to a new place of work, and any discrimination against employees who decided to take parental leave was prohibited [North, 2011, p.5].

At the same time, the Japanese tax and social insurance system, on the contrary, supports the gender division of roles in the family and prevents women from participating more fully in the economic life of society. Thus, until 2004, the head of the family was entitled to two types of deductions from the tax base - a deduction for the spouse and a special deduction for the spouse (380 thousand yen each) if the annual income of the latter did not exceed 1.03 million yen (about 10 thousand dollars). In 2004,the second deduction was canceled, but the old social security rules still apply. Namely, if the spouse's annual income is less than 1.3 million yen, she becomes a beneficiary of the pension system (basic pension) and the health insurance system without paying her own contributions; if it exceeds this amount, then her husband's social insurance ceases to apply to her, and she must make insurance contributions herself [Yashiro, 2011, p. 143-144].

The problem of shortage of preschool institutions is also quite acute in Japan. There are two types of public children's institutions: kindergartens and day care centers. The first ones are designed for part-time stays of children aged 3 to 6 years. They are administered by the Ministry of Education and are aimed at the needs of a traditional Japanese family with a working spouse and a non-working or part-time spouse. The second ones are designed for children aged from a few days to 6 years to stay all day long. They are administered by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and are designed for families with working mothers. If kindergartens are only 70% full, on the contrary, there are clearly not enough places in day care centers (according to official data - about 25 thousand). The government has started work on combining these two types of institutions, but it is complicated by the fact that they are under the jurisdiction of different ministries. As for private children's institutions and kindergartens attached to enterprises, due to rather strict legal restrictions, their role is still not very noticeable [Steinberg and Nakane, 2012, p. 23-24].

However, in my opinion, the main reason that the majority of Japanese women after the birth of children work on a non-permanent basis or do not work at all, can be considered the restrictions that the system of lifelong employment puts in their way, as well as the entrenchment in the mass consciousness, including among women themselves, of the ideas fixed by this system of the nature of the division of roles in the family and the purpose of women.

As for women who want to realize their knowledge and abilities and make a career, then, subject to the strict conditions of lifelong employment, they are forced either to refuse to marry and have children at all, or to postpone these events to the latest possible date. This forces them, in particular,

page 106
qualifications play a crucial role in career development, as they can damage their career if they drop out of the company's internal training system during parental leave. It is not surprising that the largest proportion of unmarried women is observed among university degree holders, i.e. among those women who are more likely to get a permanent job and realize their knowledge and abilities [Howard Active..., 2013, p. 6]. There are sharp differences in fertility rates between categories of working and non-working married women: in the first group, it is only 0.6, while in the second group it is 2.2 and has remained virtually unchanged over the past 30 years [The Sociology..., 2012, p. 162-163]. At the same time, it is obvious that making a decision about having a child is all the more difficult, the higher a woman's salary and the more successful her career.

Finally, another feature of the Japanese labor market is the position of older workers. As noted above, Japanese companies and government agencies have a practice of forcibly dismissing employees when they reach the so-called maximum age of stay in the company, which is now 60 years. It is clear that under an age-based wage system, forced layoffs are essentially the only way for companies to contain rising labor costs (as well as get rid of inefficient employees who, due to the peculiarities of Japanese legislation, are almost impossible to dismiss for other reasons).

Compared to other developed countries, where age-based dismissal is prohibited as a form of discrimination, the situation in Japan looks very unusual. Here, the practice of forced dismissals based on age is not only not prohibited, but also formalized by law-through the recognition of the institution of the age limit itself by Japanese labor laws. And not private companies, but it is the legislation that determines the age limits of an employee's stay in a firm: Thus, in 1998, they were raised from the previous 55 to 60 years [Conrad, 2010, p. 130]. At the same time, since pensions in Japan begin to be paid from the age of 65, the main efforts of the government are aimed at convincing companies to bring the age limit as close as possible to this milestone. In 2004, private companies were recommended to use one of three measures to ensure employment of older workers: raise the age limit, abolish it, or develop a scheme for them to continue working beyond this milestone.

However, there are no noticeable changes in this area yet. Thus, according to a survey of Japanese companies conducted in 2010, 85% of them had the age limit of 60 years, about 6% raised it to 65 years, and about 7% - to a level above 60 years, and only 2.6% of companies did not use the practice of forced layoffs by age [General Survey.. ,. 2010].

Most employees who are dismissed after reaching the age limit are rehired by the company (this is one of the elements of the lifetime employment system), but on completely different terms - on one-year contracts and about half of the previous salary. As a result of this practice, large numbers of not yet old people with extensive experience and high qualifications face a sharp change in their situation - both in terms of income and in terms of social status.

Of course, some categories have the opportunity to find a good job even after being dismissed. Thus, ministry officials often find themselves in "warm" jobs in private companies operating in industries that they previously supervised (this practice is called amakudari - "descent from heaven"). Professors of private universities can extend their contract for several years (although on less favorable terms), and public university professors can get a job at a private university (again, on less favorable terms). But for the vast majority, the moment of forced dismissal is associated with a rather difficult transition.-

page 107
home to a completely different lifestyle. At the same time, the following circumstances attach special social significance to this problem: first, that the Japanese form one of the healthiest and longest-lived nations in the world, and, secondly, that work is one of the most important values for them and occupies one of the first places in the system of their life priorities.

* * *

Thus, the Japanese labor market is characterized by a number of specific features, such as the deep divide between permanent and non-permanent employees, the polarization of young people by status and income depending on the form of employment, the degree and forms of women's participation in economic life that differ markedly from other developed countries, and the practice of forced dismissal based on age. To a large extent, these features were formed under the influence of the specifically Japanese system of hiring and labor management, which, despite the changes that have taken place over the past two decades, continues to hold its position.

The situation in the Japanese labor market has led to a number of painful social phenomena, such as the emergence of various groups of "non-standard" youth, a sharp increase in the share of unmarried young Japanese women and Japanese men, and a drop in the birth rate. It hinders the country's return to the path of sustainable economic growth. Indeed, without creating an environment conducive to youth employment, changing the model of women's participation in the labor force, and making better use of the potential of older workers, Japan is unlikely to be able to solve the problem of labor shortage, which is exacerbated by the "silver tsunami" of rapid population aging.

Although both the Government and the business community in the country are aware of the need for changes in the labor market and are taking various measures to change the situation, we can hardly expect quick results here. After all, perhaps the main reason for the preservation of the situation on the labor market is the deep rooted in the mass consciousness of ideas about the ideal career and appropriate social status, about the differences in the roles and positions of men and women in society, about the family model and family relations, and in this area, as we know, there are no rapid changes.

list of literature

Lebedeva I. P. Destinies of lifelong hiring: social aspects//Japanese Society: changing and unchanging / Ed. by E. V. Molodyakov. Moscow: AIRO-XXI Publ., 2014.

Matrusova T. N. Osobennosti upravleniya trudom v yaponskikh firmakh [Features of labor management in Japanese firms]. Uchebnoe posobie [Textbook], Moscow: Vostochny lit., 2008.

Matrusova T. N. The peculiarity of the system of motivational personnel management / / Japanese phenomenon, Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1996.

Abegglen J.G. 21st Century Japanese Management: New System, Lasting Values. N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Automotive News.

Basic survey on employment structure. Employment structure of the population of 15 years old and over and households, 2012 //Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare / http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/shugyou/pdf/ sum2012.pdf (дата обращения: 2.08.2014).

Conrad H. From Seniority to Performance Principle: The Evaluation of Pay Practices in Japanese Firms since the 1990-s // Social Science Japan Journal. 2010. Vol. 13. N 1.

Cook E.E. Expectations of Failure: Maturity and Masculinity for Freeters in Contemporary Japan// Social Science Japan Journal. 2013. Vol. 16. N 1.

Corporate Governance and Managerial Reforms in Japan. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2009.

General Survey on work conditions 2010 II Ministry of Health. Labour and Welfare (http://www.mhlw.go.jp/ english/database/db-1/general-survey.html) (дата обращения: 21.08. 2014).

Ishii-Kunts M. Nihon-ni okeru danjyo kyoudou sankaku (Joint planning of men and women in Japan) // Materials of Lecture for probationers of Japan Foundation at Chyanomidzu University. March, 2013.

page 108
Labor Economic Indicators // Japan Institute of Labor (http://www.jil.go.jp/english/estatis/eshuyo/index. htm#pdf) (accessed: 24.08.2014).

North S. Work-Life in Japan: The Past is Prologue // Boston College Center for Work and Family. Executive Briefing Series. Boston, 2011.

The Sociology of Japanese Youth. N.Y.: Nissan Institute/Routledge, 2012.

Steinberg C, Nakane M. Can women save Japan? // IMF Working Paper. WP/12/248. October, 2012.

Summary Report of Basic Survey on Wage Structure (Nationwide) 2012 // Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/dbl/dl/24gaikyo_zenkoku_Eng.pdf) (дата обращения: 3.03. 2014).

Toukei de mini Nihon (Japan through the Prism of Statistics). Tokyo: Sangyou toukei kenkyuushya, 2008.

Toward Active Participation of Women as the Core of Growth Strategy // Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. June 2013 (http://www.gcndcr.go.jp/cnglish_contents/about_danjo/whitepaper/pdf/2013 - 01.pdf) (дата обращения: 24.08.2014).

White Paper on Children and Young People 2012 // Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. June 2012 (http:// www8.cao.go.jp/youth/english/whitepaper/pdf/2012abridged.pdf) (дата обращения: 24.08.2014).

Yamada M. Kibou kakusa shyakai (The Society of Different Hopes). Tokyo: Touyou keidzai shimposhya, 2004.

Yashiro N. Myths about Japanese Employment Practices // Contemporary Japan Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies. 2011. Vol. 23. N 2.

page 109

Permanent link to this publication: